Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Phillies vs. Pirates – Grapefruit League opener

There’s baseball in Bradenton, and I must say there is a good collection of Phillies fans here.

I’m eager to see what kind of crowd is at Bright House Field tomorrow.

Here are a couple pregame notes from McKechnie Field:

- John Daly joined the Phillies yesterday during their annual golf outing.

- Pedro Feliz said in Clearwater that he feels good, but isn’t sure when he will start swinging a bat.

- Ruben Amaro Jr. said it’s “not out of the realm of possibility” the Phillies could keep three catchers on their 25-man roster as they try to figure out how badly they need another righthanded bat for their bench. Amaro wouldn’t say the possibilities for Nomar Garciaparra are dead, but he said “if I were to handicap this thing I would say less than 50 percent.” And lefthanded relievers like Joe Beimel and Will Ohman? “Still open,” Amaro said. “But nothing has changed there.” Amaro said a few days ago those relievers would have to accept a very modest salary (i.e. less than $1 million) to join the Phillies.

- Raul Ibanez knocked in Jimmy Rollins from second base with a single to left-center field with two outs in the third inning to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead.

- Jamie Moyer threw two scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and two walks, and struck out one. Joe Blanton has started the bottom of the third.

- What did I miss? The clubhouse is open during spring training games, which means I was in the clubhouse talking with Moyer when the Pirates scored four runs in the fourth inning and three runs in the fifth inning. Joe Bisenius allowed four runs and Scott Nestor allowed three runs each in an inning.

He was accidentally given the wrong directions by another player. Or maybe it was directions to the wrong place? Something like that, according to the radio guys. Anyway, don’t be so ready to jump all over Jroll in the first game of the year! Spring training at that.

Well, I guess the phils aren’t going to have a perfect season this year–lol. Todd, who looked good in the field etc. Do the numbers of Nestor and Bisenius sum up their outings or where they better then the stats indicate??

I assume that game was as painful to watch as it was to listen to on the radio. But LA was in mid-season form, so it wasn’t so bad. Hey Jeff, you can listen to game on Phillies. com tomorrow, they are going to stream it on the net.

Thanks for the tip Jimmy. I think I was k=lucky and couldn’t see or hear today’s game. Who are the two pitchers (I use the term with with some contempt) who gave up the 7 runs? Also wo is this LF with the 2 hits??

Gary Sheffield is one of the people that will suffer from a corporate decision to downsize. Normally, major league baseball teams aren’t one of the organizations that do so, but the Detroit Tigers decided to release the veteran outfielder and designated hitter from his contract as a free agent. The Tigers are prepared to eat the salary he’s still due, about $14 million, as cash advance loans of sorts towards a future draft pick or room under the salary cap. He is one run shy of 500 career home runs, has over 1,000 career RBIs, and is a solid contender for the Hall of Fame, which makes this an unceremonious dumping of Gary Sheffield.

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